The iPhone might be coming to South Korea, and close ties between a telecom …

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Continuing its marcharound the world, the iPhone's next potential stop is South Korea. "Talks" have already commenced between Apple and Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF), a mobile phone carrier with both 12 million subscribers in the country and close ties to NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest carrier.

As The Korea Times notes, KTF has been open throughout the year about its desire to sell the iPhone in South Korea. Though Apple has yet to make a decision, it has stated its plans to sell the iPhone in Asia "sometime next year," but it has yet to specify where. Considering that Apple is also in talks with NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone carrier and the second largest investor in KTF, cutting a juicy deal with the two-punch combo of these companies has got to be at the top of Apple's list.

Unlike in Japan though, South Korea requires all handsets to run a Korean-developed mobile phone OS called WIPI. Though the government there recently began allowing 3G mobile phones to be sold in the country (as long as they don't have Internet functionality), this rule likely poses a significant hurdle for Apple. A good portion of the iPhone's appeal is its internet capabilities, after all.

KTF must be offering some kind of option or workaround for the WIPI rule, or perhaps a method is on the table for WIPI's core requirements to be incorporated into the iPhone's implementation of OS X. Whatever the situation, Apple must still see some way to get the iPhone into South Korea, otherwise the talks would likely have been called off by now. KTF's CEO Cho Young-Chu says he's been waiting for an answer from Apple since August. Guess we'll just have to join him.